Brodie

Yes very interesting the Addington have gone with the day meeting once again for the Easter meeting? Personally think they would get a better oncourse crowd at night than during the day, but maybe turnover might be higher as a day meeting perhaps, although plenty of meetings during the day. Good luck trying to make money on the day as the fields appear very difficult to sort out!

Seriously, are we really meant to be taking seriously the ones that tip harness horses???? On the whole they are terrible, and feel that they are there to encourage the mug punters to follow their poor choices! The Trackside presenters really have no idea and should stick to their presenting without tipping anything, as most are useless! Absolute joke when they are showing horses that have been racing on grass tracks and then they tip them as a good thing when they are on all weather! Not hard to make money on harness racing, but you will not do it by listening to the ones, that continue to tip out horses when they just arent going to get you a collect!

Personally given up wagering on Palmy . Not sure why young Wilson drives so conservatively ? They aren’t Locarno!

So how is Manawatu going to be able to race continuously when they have only 30 to 40 horses? Snowball effect, numbers could drop lower and stakes dissappear? Turnover can not be flash now!

Death knell for Palmerston North once Michael House quits. Too much of a drain on the coffers of harness just like Auckland is.

They wouldnt get away with it in NZ Gamma. The standard of horse in NZ is so much better in NZ.

Gavel House Standardbred Auction House which closes in the next day or so has some interesting lots in the catalogue! Michael House has 13 of his race winners from his stable up for sale! Mostly the ones that are currently in Palmerston North and raced tonight. Most are multiple race race winners so clearly acknowledges that they have met their mark and do not have a future racing in Canterbury. They mostly have reserves but some are sold for as little as $500. Is this a sign that this Michael House is about to give up campaigning at Palmerston North??????

The photo of the horses in the dust paddocks are shocking conditions for any horse. How is it possible for this Ben Yole to be able to train so many horses when clearly the wins are due to the fact that he wins becajse he has the whole field! Does he own all of these horses himself or does he actually have owners paying training bills to have their horses mistreated? Personally do not bother wagering on ozzie harness nowadays since the NZ TAB stopped providing race info on their website. Yes I appreciate harness Australia website has it!

Well if our esteemed racing minister, bully McAnulty approves them then yes my days in the sun are over lol. More time to enjoy life without the time spent doing the homework. Ladbrokes Australia owned by this outfit, stopped me from getting a bet on harness racing after only a few months! Tried to speak to the Socalled BOOKIES department over there and they would not even speak to me lol. All the receptionist would say is that she couldnt put me thru to anyone to talk to about wagering! Just more BS that has been entrusted upon all of us in recent years. They arent going to be here for the betterment of racing in NZ, once they are in they will be ruthless. David Ellis on TV1 was all for this takeover, he isnt speaking as a punter and at the end of the day, punters are the only way racing is going to be viable!

Very young when he was racing but you are only as old as you feel, Paleface lol

Manaroa! the ugly duckling!

Interesting, never heard of this Entain outfit before, but googled them! You are probably right that I will be culled if they do get the nod . It could will be the death knell for harness racing in NZ as well because they will be ruthless by the look of it and concentrate more on the Sports. Plenty of people will be outside the WINZ office looking for work which is what the Reserve Bank Governor is wanting! Anyway “The Brodster” made hay while the sun shone and all haymakers eventually put their feet up. Back to the SLEEPERS I would say lol

It is a pretty good bet to say that the NZ TAB will be outsourced to one of 3 overseas betting agencies if McAnulty gives his approval in the next week or two! Initially apparently they are going to retain all current employees for a year but then many will get the DCM! Will this help harness racing to survive or will it be the death knell for it? Hopefully it will be for the good of the industry as the TAB have been in the whole doing a less than average job. They have suits that are being paid massive salaries and on the face of it unjustifiably, so this is going to change you would think if it is being run from overseas. I can see the new owner wanting to slash costs and wanting punters to be betting on account thru their phones or computer with no betting operators. They will no doubt be wanting more sports betting etc. as that is where the growth is from the young ones rather than racing! Will the new owner allow punters to offload the amount they want to or are they going to KNEECAP punters that they do not want?? Interesting times indeed!

Gamma, we send over a lot of horses who have met their mark in NZ! Ozzie bred horses generally are inferior to NZ bred horses and that is the basic reason that our exported do very well in Oz! Yes there are some Grand Circuit horses bred in Oz that go good.

Personally believe that our current group of Junior drivers are not a bad lot, by way of talent in the cart and personality wise! Ben Hope is certainly one of these! From my perspective, Ben is what the industry totally requires for it to continue. He is always enthusiastic, great with the media and a totally hard worker! If his father Greg and mother Nina were not happy with his performance in the cart then they would not allow him to drive so many. Yes there have been times when he may have caused issues but that I reckon comes from youthful exuberance and he is always wanting to give his horse the best possible opportunity. There are many drivers that do not drive anymore and allow the more professional drivers in the cart, which is great for racing. Most of us know there are still some that should not be allowed to drive but it will always be the way. We will not always agree with each other, which is the beauty of any forum, but Ben Hope is an asset to harness racing that we can not afford to lose. The Hope family are so professional, hard working and appear as such lovely people you could possibly meet.

Spatchcock will suggest he is a KNIGHT in shining armour !

SpatchCOCK is only here to be antagonistic, clearly by his lack of ever posting anything apart from attacking posters! You are correct, if he is so unhappy then he needs to either not read anything or actually post his opinion. Brodie will post his opinion whether SpatchCOCK agrees or not, but he needs to express his opinion, however doubt he is capable going on recent events!!

True to form SpatchCOCK! So you confirm that you are loopy, so obviously you enjoy my posts! Come on SpatchCOCK give us something worth reading instead of attacking posters!

Yes an absolute borefest was the race with six starters and a stake of $27k!!! Was a great result to see Nicholas Cage win due to Akuta letting him away with a 65 second half!! Deserved to get beaten and Copy That was not put into the boring race. Stake 27k and only $5k in the win pool just shows that Alexandra Park racing is a turn off for punters as the racing is shite there nowadays! Turnover is going to be very poor so something needs to be done about this course!!

I personally dont, Richie. Six horse mobile, be a borefest and punters surely wont engage. Turnover will be very poor the whole meeting, a continued drain on harness financially

SpatchCOCK, seriously if you can not say anything that has any semblance of worth, we would have to question your intentions?

It was with sadness that I saw on Trackside today, of the passing of Trevor Wilkes. Seemed to be liked by everyone and was a commentator of the dogs for something like 43 years and only recently retired from calling. Was a very good commentator of harness as well mostly did the West Coast circuit years ago, but also had stints at Addington . Enjoyed life and will be missed by many and left us before his time😩

Elite customers are customers who are losing punters a d that is why they like to look after them. Punters that win are not welcome by the NZ TAB, and they are not treated with any sort of fairness! Yes the TAB would love to be able to bet rid of harness racing and some of their policies is totally in line with achieving this!

Craig would be paid by the NZTAB seem he is on Trackside. Do we really think that it would be in the TAB’s best interests for their employee to actually be tipping out horses that punters would offload on with the Bookies so that the Bookies lose???? Total conflict of interest and questionable that people should be paying a TIPLINE for the same picks that he shows on the WHALE WATCH! Anyway, I suppose if you are not clever enough to do your own research and want to pay someone who also tips the whole country the same tips then it is your business! Just does not make a lot of sense.

There are often very poor drives that go on, when someone wants the lead and the leader does not hand up. Generally on most occasions when they go to war, they both stop! There is a lot of crazy stuff and even from experienced drivers, for some reason they seem to want to stay in front at all cost. If I had backed the one in front, i would prefer to hand up and get the trail than have a speed war that gives the horse less chance! I